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Sunday, 5 June 2011

Out with the Stats, in with the Feel

They say that only three things are certain: lies, damn lies and statistics. Numbers and statistics bind you to a constant quest to get that +1, that extra little bit on top of what you already have. Often this quest comes at the expense of enjoyment. How often have you heard people on forums and in game groan about the need to grind to attain this, or to farm to obtain that?

Statistics are an easy fall back concept, they provide that drive for players to keep playing and to keep striving to attain the "best stats". It's not just a compunction held solely by MMO players; having spent the past few weeks playing FIFA Ultimate team, I've realised that those little numbers mean a whole lot to gamers.

1.85m? That's like a WHOLE lotta game time.

My point isn't, I suppose, that statistics and numbers are a bad game mechanic. Of course they have their plus sides. I do, however, wish there was more of an emphasis on how a character/player feels. Perhaps you stumble across a lower league Norwegian player who, in your hands, is a complete goal-scoring machine. This would be the kind of emergent gameplay discovery which would inject some enjoyment back into gaming for me.

Guild Wars 2, of course, is trying to put a bit of "feel" back into gaming. By doing away with the trinity and allowing players to create ad-hoc groups, I'm really hoping that GW2's players will appreciate how their character feels as opposed to what armour rating their +5 helmet of sarcasm is.